Former Calgary Stampeders player Joffrey Reynolds, right, leaves court with his lawyer Randi Collins in Calgary, Alta., Thursday, Feb. 7, 2013. Reynolds was appearing on charges of common assault and assault causing bodily harm against his one-time girlfriend. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

CALGARY — Former Calgary Stampeders’ star running back Joffrey Reynolds says it was his ex-girlfriend who attacked him first on July 14, because she was angry at him for cheating on her, and not him assaulting her as she testified.

Reynolds told court on Friday that he was awakened in his bed by Kaitlin (Katy) Ward when she got home about 3 a.m. She was yelling at the top of her lungs and began to punch him.

Reynolds said he only grabbed her in an attempt to calm her down.

“She’s a former athlete, a tall woman, and she’s strong,” said Reynolds. “I had to use enough force to get her under control and not punch me anymore.”

Reynolds admitted he knew he was not welcome at Ward’s Eau Claire condo last July 14, because he had twice been refused entry by the concierge at her request.

But he said he first tried to scale the five-metre-high wall around the complex by jumping on his car, then a tree, then went through a back door that he had propped open earlier with a garden hose.

He denied he actually made it over the wall to gain entry to the home.

He said they had many arguments in the past and they always settled it with him being allowed to stay, so he figured it would be the same this time.

Reynolds is on trial for housebreaking to commit assault, assault causing bodily harm and common assault for an incident at a bar a few hours earlier.

Court heard the incident actually began around midnight at Black Betty’s when Reynolds and Ward got into an argument over his alleged infidelity.

However, he disagreed that he kicked her in the back of the leg above the Achilles heel. Instead, he said he accidentally stepped on her as she was trying to leave.

Ward, who said she had an on-off relationship with the Stampeders’ all-time rusher for six years, testified on Thursday that he tackled her, threw her to the floor and tried to choke her after she tried to get him to leave her downtown condo.

She said she was “scared, terrified, losing breath,” when he assaulted her and verbally berated her and called her derogatory names.

Ward said the incident began at the bar after she was told by a friend that Reynolds had been cheating on her. She said he wanted to discuss the relationship that night but she told him she didn’t want him at her house anymore and that they could discuss the issue the next day.

Reynolds testified he wanted to discuss the issue but said the cheating had happened months prior.

She said she was surprised that he was in her house when she got home.

Under cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Hyatt Mograbee, Reynolds admitted that he knew he shouldn’t be in the home, but didn’t want to have to stay in his car that night.

“I wouldn’t say I was angry. She’d played this game many times before. Maybe she wanted to feel like she had the upper hand,” said Reynolds.

“I went in there, because I was tired, sleepy, and drunk. I was ready to go to bed.

Mograbee will conclude her cross-examination of Reynolds this afternoon when the trial before provincial court Judge Brian Stevenson continues.